Contemporary Amperex Technology held onto its crown as the world’s biggest battery maker in terms of batteries installed in autos in the first 11 months of last year, according to the latest research.

CATL’s installed capacity surged 48.3 percent from January to November 2023 from a year ago to reach 233.4 gigawatt hours, according to a report released yesterday by South Korean market research firm SNE Research.

This gave CATL 37.4 percent of the global market, a gain of 1.7 percentage point from the same period last year and an uptick of 0.5 percentage point from the first 10 months. The Ningde-based firm is the only battery supplier with a worldwide market share of over 35 percent.

CATL’s high growth is expected to continue as its batteries are widely used in a broad range of major EV brands including GAC Group’s Aion Y, Geely’s ZEEKR 001, Tesla’s Model 3 and Y, BMW’s iX and Mercedes’ EQS, SNE said.

Overseas, CATL’s growth almost doubled from a year ago after many foreign auto manufacturers, including Tesla, decided to install more lithium-iron-phosphate batteries in their electric cars.

BYD ranked second worldwide with its installed capacity surging 60.4 percent over the period to 98.3 GWh, the report said. This gave the Shenzhen-based company a market share of 15.7 percent, an increase of 1.8 percentage points year on year and a slight decrease of 0.1 percentage point from its share between January and October.

South Korea’s LG Energy Solution came third with its installed capacity soaring 41.8 percent to 84.8 GWh. This gave it a market share of 13.6 percent, the same as last year. But the gap with BYD widened from 0.3 percentage point in the same period last year to 2.1 percentage points.

Six of the top 10 EV battery makers were Chinese, accounting for 63.7 percent market share, a slight increase of 0.4 percentage point from the period January to October, the report said.

Three South Korean companies entered the top ten, seizing a combined market share of 23.1 percent, 0.3 percentage point less than during the first 10 months.

Panasonic is the only Japanese company in the top ten, ranking fourth. From January to November last year, its installed capacity jumped 27.5 percent year on year to 40.3 GWh. This gave it a market share of 6.5 percent, a year-on-year dip of 0.7 percentage point.